portalNATION Digital Media and Convera Make Alliance

Perhaps it's not as monumental as the formation of United Artists, but the end result of a new partnership will hopefully mean an easier way for Spielberg wannabes to create movies and presentations using streaming media.

Roswell, Ga.-based portalNATION Digital Media and Convera (Nasdaq: CNVR), a provider of technologies, products and solutions, have formed a strategic technology licensing agreement.

According to the terms of the agreement, PortalNATION will integrate Convera Screening Room, an award-winning solution for capturing, searching, viewing, editing, and publishing video content, into PortalNATION's technology offering. By incorporating Screening Rooms video content management tools, PortalNATION will enable its customers to capture, encode,index, manage and re-purpose their corporate video content as part of PortalNATION's syndication and distribution service.

"We believe the future of marketing via the Internet is video, and we intend to help companies deliver their video content to as many people as possible," Ron Mahan, CEO of PortalNATION, said. "Within two years, consumers will comparison shop using streaming video, they will see product informational videos on their wireless devices, and every product will have a video information center. PortalNATION, as the Corporate Video Clearinghouse, will be central to its delivery. Convera Screening Room is the best technology on the market for managing video content, and it enables us to deliver a complete end-to-end content management solution for our clients."

Convera Screening Room provides scalable access to any video asset -- analog or digital -- from any Web browser. With Screening Room, users can capture video, browse storyboards, catalog content using metadata, annotations, closed caption text, and voice sound tracks, and also search for precise video clips using text and image clues. In the end, users can create rough cuts and edit them for further production.

As part of the agreement, PortalNATION will incorporate elements of Convera Screening Room into each of its service offerings. Through its partnership with Convera, PortalNATION looks to become a significant aggregator and distributor of video content.

"In the near future, companies will be able to deliver personalized streaming video content-like video brochures, advertising messages and sharply targeted commerce and promotions to current and potential customers alike," Mahan said.

PortalNATION has begun to sign up pre-launch customers in advance of the system's availability, which is slated for the end of this year's first quarter.